Cartooney

 

Martin Arnold – Black Holes
Andy Holden – Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape
Jennifer & Kevin McCoy – Every Anvil
patten – CB-MMXVIII (I’ve been thinking of giving sleeping lessons)
Jason Salavon – All the Ways (The Simpsons)
Mungo Thomson – American Desert (for Chuck Jones)

The impact of animated cartoons has been profound. In the early 20th century, we began exploiting the possibilities of the animated frame. The seven artists in this exhibition don’t create cartoons, they deconstruct those that already exist; from Looney Tunes, to The Simpsons to Charlie Brown. They exploit this potent material to reveal the inner and outer workings of our human world. The original cartoon is ever-present, haunting us with suggestive content.

The artists in this exhibition reframe our world. Here we are asked to consider the laws, systems and iconographies of the cartoon world while drawing parallels with our human world; physical laws, the laws of gravitation, matter + light, the physics of motion, and societal psychologies & behaviours. We are presented with fascinating catalogues and overlaying systems of symbolic language. The purposeful demolition of expectation in these works, mirrors the instabilities and dreams of modern life. They remind us that the pervasive medium of the cartoon can reflect and influence how we navigate the world. If there is a paradox here, it might be that dismantling a cartoon can throw open the doors of perception.

THANKS

The Artists + their Studios
The Cartoon Creators
Magda Sawon, Postmasters Gallery, New York
University of Chicago
Temple Shipley + Galerie Frank Elbaz, Texas
Devansh Parikh

I like physics but I love cartoons

— Stephen Hawking
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